Freehold Society in New England Puritans created a yeomen society of independent farm families who owned their land as freeholders- without feudal dues or leases by 1750, rapidly increasing population outstripped the supply of easily farmed land, challenging the freehold ideal. A. Farm Families: Women’s Place Men were head of the household no time for anything.
They did many labors by 1750, family sizes decreased due to shrink in farm sizes had some more time but still under cultural and law restrictions under men B. Farm Property: Inheritance ale colonists escaped Europe and got land parent’s with small farms had to put children up as indentured servants to provide them food. When they turned 18, they were free to climb up the agricultural ladder luckier children from successful farm families received a marriage portion (land, livestock, or farm equipment) when they reached 23-25.
It repaid children for past labor and allowed parent to arrange marriage family’s prosperity and parent’s security relied on finding a wise choice mate falling in love was not a luxury they could afford when married, the wife gives up her land and personal property to her husband after his death, she receives her dower right- the right to use but not sell a third of the family’s estate.
Widow’s death or remarriage cancels this right and property given to the children father’s cultural duty to provide inheritances to children. Failure to do so, he loses his status usually family farm goes to the oldest son, while the others gets money, apprenticeship contracts, or unclear land along the frontier yeomen families moved to the New England frontier or to other unsettled regions where life was hard but land cheap accomplishment was creation of communities composed of indentured property owners C.
The Crisis of Freehold Society increase of population= less land inheritance for children less to give= less control over children’s lives no more arranged marriages, premarital sex for permission to marry bastard children increased from 10% in sass to 30% in sass in response, had smaller families using primitive birth control others Joined neighbors to petition provincial government for land grants replaced wheat/ barley for potatoes/corn New England became livestock economy major supplier of salted and pickled meat to slave plantations of West Indies household mode of production- exchange goods and labor egg. Owed artisan’s land for shoes achieved maximum output, preserving the freehold ideal. The Middle Atlantic: Toward a New Society 1720-1765 unlike New England founded by English Puritans, Middle Atlantic colonies of New York, New Jersey, and Penn were homes to peoples to differing origins, languages, and religions A. Economic Growth mans Social Inequality grew wheat. Increase in migrants for fertile lands 1720-1770, population explosion in W. Europe doubled price of wheat American farmers profited from growing demand by increasing export of wheat, corn, flour, and bread.
This boom helped population of Middle Atlantic region to surge room 50,000 in 10th 120,000 1720 and 450,000 in 1765 1. Tenancy New York as population rose, demand for land increased but refused to settle in New Work’s fertile Hudson River Valley. Wealthy English families and Dutch families presided in the manors created by Dutch West India Company dominated vast tracts they lived lavish lives like European gentry, like the slave-owning Chesapeake planters migrants didn’t want to work on their lands as poor peasants .
As freehold land ion eastern New York, manorial Rods attracted tenants by granting them long leases and the right to sell their improvements (houses and barns) to the ext tenant. Number of tenants increased tenants hoped to sell enough wheat to buy freehold farmsteads cradle scythe (sass) doubled/tripled the amount of grain a worker could cut even so, the most they could buy with all the wheat cut was salt, sugar, tools, and cloth, but little else 2. Quaker Pennsylvania relative economic equality in Penn and New Jersey because the original Quaker migrants came with equal amount of resources.
First settlers lived simple only wealthy settlers could afford ceramic plates imported from England/Holland increase in wheat trade and influx of poor settlers caused social division. Sass, some farmers in eastern Penn grown wealthy by buying slaves and hiring property’s laborers to raise wheat others divided their lands and leased them out. New class of wealthy agricultural capitalist- large scale farmers, rural landlords, speculators, storekeepers, and gristmill operators. Simple living stuff turned more elegant.
Many Scots-Irish inmates who had no taxable property merchants and artisans developed outwork system- bought wool/ flax from farmers and paid property’s workers to weave it. B. Cultural Diversity middle colonies consisted of ethnically and religiously diverse communities usually married within own ethnic groups exception were Hugeness (exiled French Protestant Calvinist) who lost French identity by intermarrying other Protestants Quakers became dominant social group in Penn because of their numbers and wealth and influence.
Controlled Pennsylvania representative assembly until sass and had considerable power in New Jersey. Were pacifists bought land and negotiate treaties with Indians. No major wars until sass condemned slavery attracted German settlers fleeing from war, religious persecution, and poverty German settlements dominated certain districts and moved down to western parts of Maryland, Virginia, and Carolinas. Maintained their German identity. Married within group egg. Women worked on the lands not many politically involved.
Only acted to protect their churches and cultural practices egg. Married women’s rights to hold property and write w s Presbyterian Scots from Ireland formed largest group of migrants faced discrimination, taxes, regulations Irish Test Act of 1704 restricted them from holding public office migrated and retained their identity C. Religious Identity and Political Conflict sass, Scots-Irish Presbyterian challenged pacifism of Quakers wanted more aggressive Indian policy
German migrants also opposed cause they demented respect for inheritance Scots-Irish Presbyterian, German Baptists, and German Lutheran customs against Quakers Quakers cultural and religious diversity caused conflict The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening 1740-1765 Enlightenment- human reason to understand world Pietism- personal relation to God A. The Enlightenment in America John Locke- natural rights of life, liberty, and property. Change government as fit Deist believed God created the world but allowed it to operate within the laws of nature Benjamin Franklin B.
American Pietism and the Great Awakening appealed to the hearts rather than the minds teachings came from German migrants in sass revival of faith in New England, where most lost original Puritan faith, Jonathan Edwards restored spiritual enthusiasm to the Congregational churches George Whitfield turned local revivals into Great Awakening, attracting huge crowds, even Benjamin Franklin very inspirational against slave brutality Whitfield and Edwards both used emotional appeal C.
Religious Upheaval in the North Old Lights vs. New Lights (evangelicals, Great Awakeners) challenged traditional churches, authority of ministers (authority came from inversion not study) questioned merchants/ marketplace established colleges D. Social and Religious Conflict in the South 1.
The Presbyterian Revival Great Awakening challenged Church of England and planter elite George Morris and New Lights moved up the Tidewater region, threatening social authority of Virginia gentry social class lessened as freeholders went to New Light church instead of Church of England threatened Church’s ability to tax Virginian governors denounced them as “false teachings”. This kept people in the Church of England 2.
The Baptist Insurgency Baptist, unlike Presbyterian, succeeded in conversions appealed more to poor farmers by offering them solace from the troubled world adult baptism by sass, thousands of yeomen and tenants families were drawn welcomed blacks too less in S. Carolina and Georgia because of old African traditions and white people’s hostility towards them Chesapeake planters threatened in social order and offended by them against their customary pleasures of drinking, gambling, etc. Aced attacks congregations still continued changed people’s lifestyle touched by God but still defended with rigor not as influential in Chesapeake as men still kept authority The Indictment Challenge: War, Trade, and Social Conflict 1750-1765 A. The French and Indian War in 1750, Indian people remained dominant throughout the interior regions of eastern North America- the great valleys of Ohio and Miss River Spanish in New Mexico French along SST Lawrence River near Montreal and Quebec British along Atlantic coast Iroquois and other Indians resisted white settlers by using their control over the fur trade for guns and subsidies 1.
The Failure of Diplomacy Iroquois strategy of playing off French against the British gradually broke down European government surprised rising cost of “gifts” of arms and money Indian alliance broke down increase in land speculations great international meeting in Albany, New York June 1754 with Indians and British Board of Trade.
Said they weren’t taking their land and wanted help against French Movement into Ohio River Valley prompted conflict with French in response, French built forts, including Fort Duquesne escalated when Governor Identified dispatched expedition led by Colonel George Washington July 1745, French captured him and his troops, prompting war 2. Expansionism Triumphant William Pit (Parliament) and Lord Halifax (head of the Board of Trade) persuaded Pelham (Prime minister) for expansion.
Dispatched naval and military forces to join with colonial militia in attacking French forts success led to defeat on Fort Duquesne in July 1755 by French and their Indian allies (Delaware and Shawnee) B. The Great War for Empire 1756 British/Prussia vs. French/Austria ?+ Seven Years War British mounted major offensives in India, West Africa, and N.
America, becoming a “great war for empire” William Pit was great commercial and military strategists appointed James Wolfe, Jeffrey Amherst, and William Howe as top commanders in America agreed to supply colonial troops with money and supplies beginning 1758, British triumphant arced French out of Fort Duquesne (reamed Fort Pit) and captured major fortress of Lugubrious at the mouth of SST. Lawrence Wolfe attacked Quebec, heart of France’s American Empire. After repeated failures, he captured it.
This was turning point Royal Navy prevented French reinforcements from crossing Atlantic 1760, Montreal captured and conquest of Canada complete East India Company captured French commercial outposts and took control of trade in large sections of India. Seized French Senegal in West Africa, sugar islands of Martinique and Guadalupe, and Spanish colonies to Cuba and Philippines. Confirmed these acquirement Treaty to Paris in 1 Ottawa chief Pontiac liked French better. Concerned of increase settlers aligned wit other tribes against British, capturing every British garrison west of Fort Niagara.
Alliance broke down and accepted British as new rulers Proclamation Line of 1763 temporarily barred Anglo?Americans from settling west of the Appalachians Canada is British controlled but land was not granted to American colonists C. British Economic Growth ad the Consumer Revolution most industrial nation in the world with its new technology and work discipline, passing Dutch due to Industrial Revolution, increase in machines, more goods reduced American raised living standards (Consumer Rev. ) , bought more British exports by increasing their exports of wheat, rice, and tobacco S.
Carolina- indigo plantations American binging caused many consumers to be in debt even in boom times of sass and sass, exports only paid for 80% of imported British goods remaining 20% financed by Britain with credit of Pit’s military expenditures as war went down, these credit and supply contracts decreased, making it harder for Americans to buy goods people more reliant on overseas creditors and international economic conditions D. Land Conflicts inflict over land rights as population increase Kent families Joined other Connecticut farmers in 1749 to form the Susquehanna Company, a land-speculating venture.
Hoped to settle the Wyoming valley in northeastern Pennsylvania petitioned the legislature to assert Jurisdiction over that region on the basis of Connecticut “sea to sea” royal charter of 1662, but King Charles II granted these lands to William Penn, whose family invoked its proprietary rights and issued its own land grants settlers from both Con and Penn were burning each other’s houses both governments referred dispute to authorities n London Simultaneously, 3 different land disputes in Hudson River Valley.
Settlers from MA claims freehold estates on manor lands in NY controlled by the Van Renewals and Livingston families Happening Indians asserted legal claims to their traditional lands, which had been granted by English governors to various manorial lords Dutch and German tenants asserted ownership rights to farms that they had held long leases and, when the landlords ignored their claims, refused By 1766, tenants in Westchester, Duchess, and Albany Counties to pay rent. Rebelled against their landlords and used mob violence to close the courts
General Thomas Gage and 3 British regiments Joined local sheriffs and manorial bailiffs to suppress the tenant uprising, intimidate the Happening Indians, bad evict the MA squatters. (at the behest of the royal governor) revival of proprietary power landed gentry’s power increased tenants and yeomen farmers feared they soon might be reduced to the status of European peasants and searched for cheap freehold land in western regions near the Appalachian Mountains E. Western Uprisings movement to western frontiers created disputes with Indian policy, political representation, and debt Scot-Irish wanted to push Indians out, but pacifist
Quakers prevented military action 1763, band of Scots-Irish called the Buxton Boys took matter into their own hands and massacred 20 members to the peaceful Conestoga tribe Governor John Penn tried to bring them to Justice but no witness 1. The South Carolina Regulators after war with France, a group of vigilante, the Regulators , tried to suppress outlaw bands of whites that were stealing cattle and property in the countryside wanted greater political rights for their region and demented that the eastern-controlled government provide them with more local courts, fairer taxes, and greater local representation in the provincial assembly.
Government compromised with them for they feared slave revolts if the militia was away in the backcountry. In 1767, the assembly agreed to create locally controlled courts and reduced the fees for legal documents, but refused to lower taxes of reapportion the assembly rival backcountry group called the Moderators raises an armed force of its own and forced the Regulators to accept the authority of the colonial government. 2. Civil Strife in North Carolina in N. Carolina 1766, another Regulator movement rose in the backcountry because of Great War for Empire, tobacco prices plummeted and many in debt
Eastern Judges directed sheriffs to seize property of bankrupt farmers debtors joined with the Regulators and intimidated Judges, closed down courts and broke into Jails to free comrade. Leader was Herman Husband. He focused his attention on corrupt local officials and urge people not to vote for any clerks, lawyers, or Scotch merchant. N. Carolina Regulators demented to pay taxes in the produce of their land instead of cash, lowering legal fees, lowering taxes, and for greater legislative representation Royal Governor William Tryout defeated large Regulator force at the Alliance River.
